So basically I accidentally came up with the idea of a merfolk riding around on an octopus, terrorizing (or protecting) the land, seas and skies (air walk/overland flight).
Currently I'm debating between Barbarian (RAGELANCEPOUNCE also lets octopus pounce with Greater Ferocious Mount), Cavalier (Dune Drifter lets me be a cowboy), Druid (for nature theme, great spells and guaranteed octopus) or Hunter (nature and teamwork theme, good spells and great octopus). Anyone got any advice? I'm open to other suggestions too.
You can try being a ranger. There is a merfolk specific archetype called Wave Warden.
Just so you know ragelancepounce doesn't work properly like you may think it does. The developers ruled that the additional attacks granted by pounce will not benefit from the damage multiplier from a charge. So only the first attack would benefit. Also, barbarian has the problem of not having a mount on its own. So you have to take levels in another class.
Barbarian has archetypes that allow you to get a full mount with Boon Companion.
I suggest Hunter with the Primal Companion archetype so that your Octopus can fly as early as level 1 for X minutes a day = to your level.
Mounted Fury archetype does get you access to a mount, but certainly not a octopus. It is restricted to horse or camel only (for medium size barbarians).
Oh, right.
I forgot about that. My brain is not operating today, too much math today.
I am aware that bonus lance damage only occurs on the first hit, but even then, mixed with Raging Brutality and maybe Horn of the Criosphinx, a Spirited Charge is going to do insane damage. Plus it lets the octopus pounce too, and everyone needs a pouncing octopus in their lives!
As far as Barbarians go, Mad Dog would let you get an octopus, so still totally doable.
I kind of doubt that an octopus counts as a quadruped, so Evolved Companion is probably out. I suppose I could always go summoner and ride my octopus eidolon, it'd definitely get pounce then but then it'd never be able to get all 9 attacks in that large octopi are known for. Not sure how Coordinated Charge helps if you're already mounted, unless maybe it lets you charge twice? If that's the case that's crazy powerful.
Riding the octopus is a definite must for the build.
Having a Merfolk riding an octopus (or just about anything else) presents a certain geometrical problem . . . .
Exotic saddles can go both ways ;)
I am aware that bonus lance damage only occurs on the first hit, but even then, mixed with Raging Brutality and maybe Horn of the Criosphinx, a Spirited Charge is going to do insane damage. Plus it lets the octopus pounce too, and everyone needs a pouncing octopus in their lives!
As far as Barbarians go, Mad Dog would let you get an octopus, so still totally doable.
Mad Dog is a horrible horrible archetype for what you're trying to do. It looks good in theory, but you need to look closer.
War Beast (Ex)
At 1st level, a mad dog gains the service of an animal companion, using the barbarian's level as her effective druid level.
This ability replaces the rage powers gained at 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.
You only end up getting rage power at levels 4, 8, 12 and 16. So you only get 4. That completely ruins what you were trying for with your build. I mean, you want so many rage power you were spending feats on extra rage powers, which is legit, but now you're sacrificing more than half you normal amount of rage powers. I just don't think there is a way for you to make that work with your above design. Plus consider that even with extra rage power feat now your spending all your feats on extra rage power instead of the required mounted combat feats including spirited charge (which requires 2 other feats to gain access to, using up 3 of your 10 total feats).
Not to mention the mad dog barbarian doesn't even get to rage until level 4 and his rage is 3 levels behind a regular barbarian.
Exotic saddles can go both ways ;)
I think he meant geographical, not geometrical. Because I think he was trying to point out that you have a 5ft movement speed on land. And an octopus has only a 20ft movement speed and can only breathe in water, not on land. Now this can be remedied with spells. But a barbarian certainly doesn't have any spells to do it. You can make it feasible with a hunter or druid, but not barbarian.
Actually on second thought, I think he did mean geometrical. As in how will you sit in a saddle. That part can actually beignored,a s you mention, exotic saddle. But my other points are valid.
Also, octopodes...damn I forgot what I was going to say. I kept editing and looking things up to verify and forgot what I was going to say. If it comes back to me I'll add it later.
Edit: Now I remember. Octopodes start out as small size category. In fact, they don't even get larger at the 4th level advancement. Which is a big problem. Because a medium creature can only ride a larger (or larger creature). Now, with the feat undersized mount you could ride a medium creature. But the octopus is still small. Which means its too small for you to ride. In order for this to work you would need to take undersized mount and use reduce person on yourself to be able to ride it. Or cast a spell on your mount to increase its size. And enlarge person doesn't work because animals aren't humanoids (a requirement for the target line of the spell). You would have to use Animal Growth, a druid, ranger, or hunter spell.
A squid comes close but has its own problems. It starts at and stays medium, so you could ride it with undersized mount feat. However, it doesn't even have a land movement speed, so it could only move 5ft each round. I don't even think it can charge without a land movement speed. It also still can't breathe on land.
Cavalier (Beast Rider) can net you a mount... although what's kinda dumb is that "DMs can allow mounts" in the regular class entry anyway so...
As for the actual mount:
- Shark
- Dolphin, Orca
- Snapping Turtle
- Elasmosaurus
- Giant Gar
- Manta Ray
- Tylosaurus
- Archelon
- Basilosaurus
Unfortunately, I can't find any companion which is amphibious like your merfolk...
Eh, the octopus can hold it's breath or have a decanter of endless water strapped to it, that part isn't much of a concern. Also, I guess I should note that this is for a home game and unusual mounts were okayed ages ago so riding around on a large sized octopus has the green light already, I'm looking moreso for suggestions and advice on what class(es) to use to allow for the most effective or the most interesting mounted character while still being capable of a nautical theme.
Holding the breathe doesn't work so well. At least not if you're going to spend the majority of time on land. You can only hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to twice your con score. If you take any action other than free actions (which moving or attacking would definitely qualify) then it effectively uses 2 rounds of time you have to hold your breath. You octopus would have 32 rounds (3.2 minutes) or air to breath. You're not making it far out of the water without magic.
And a decanter of endless water wouldn't do the trick. You could build an enclosure for him, and fill it with water. Even a barrel or something. But it defeats the point of being a mount.
It's important for you to provide details like you GM is going to give you a large size octopus, because otherwsie I have to give you the advice that it's not possible to ride one otherwise (unless you were small and took undersized mount).
@Claxon: Actually, both geographical and geometrical problems apply.
Strongtail gets you a land speed of 15' at the cost of decreasing your swim speed to be 30'. You COULD poach your Animal Companion with the feat chain Nature Soul, Animal Ally, Boon Companion -- this would lose you fewer Rage Powers than Mad Dog. But that doesn't solve the problem of finding a suitable Animal Companion in the first place, especially since by RAW the Animal Ally list doesn't have anything amphibious in it (only the Viper even has a swim speed, and it is Tiny, with speed 20' in all modes). Now if you go the Summoner route, you are covered once you get the levels for the evolutions you need. I think the Eidolon might even be able to take care of the exotic saddle part itself.
I did a quick look at Alluria Publishing Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting PDF and unless your GM fully adopts its custom mechanics (bouyancy, drag, underwater falling speed, pressure) any suggestions like its available classes and undersea combat rules won't help.
Cerulean Seas introduces the plunging attack, dropping negative buoyant missiles (like harpoons) onto a target directly below, or a missile object with positive buoyant "gas bags" attached for an upward plunge. Also attack penalties to natural and unarmed attacks do not apply to natural undersea creatures of the Cerulean Seas campaign setting.
All mentions of mounts (in Cerulean Seas) point to hippocampi as primary steed of the setting, and no mention of octopi steeds.
I get the coolness factor of riding an octopus into undersea combat, but it's lack of speed, complex question on how to get a saddle to stay on one let alone allow a rider to stay mounted, and complete inability to deal with being "out of the water", makes it a terrible choice for a mount. You're better off with some kind of vertibrate, if not a full on hippocampi or sea mammal.